Seriously need some advice from an experienced source!

My daughter is 4 months old. I went back to work a few weeks ago & while at work, she is home with her Dad. He has a hard time feeding her because she will not accept the bottle from him. She prefers nursing. During my 12 week maternity leave I was pumping & storing breast milk & there were a few occasions when I would drink so we would give her pumped milk in a bottle... She used to take the bottles just fine, so this makes no sense that now (when we actually need her to) she refuses bottle feedings. I don't understand, she gets soooo hysterical

Re: Seriously need some advice from an experienced source!

I don't know if I am the "experienced source" that you are looking for, but I can offer this personal info -- we had a pretty stubborn case of outright bottle refusal for 6 weeks, and it took another 8-10 weeks to overcome what I call "bottle reluctance" and get full acceptance of the bottle. Like your baby, ours was fully capable of eating from the bottle, he just didn't prefer it. When he started daycare he was only taking 2-4 oz over an entire day, which went on for weeks. I was pretty freaked out about it, but our daycare director assured me that "No baby will purposely starve himself" and they just kept experimenting and working on it and reassuring me he would get it together. They were right. He reverse cycled for about two months, making up all those lost calories at night (fun fun), but very gradually increased his daytime intake week by week, and eventually came to eat the normal amount (1-1.5 oz per hour away from mom). I think some babies are just very stubborn ... they only want one meal from one restaurant! Persistence, flexibility, and optimism go a far way for solving this problem. I think with more time and experimentation, your LO will figure it out

If you want a list of specific ideas, I can reply again later and make some suggestions (we cycled through a LOT of variations) ... but I found some very helpful articles with tips & techniques on the LLL Resources pages, and on Kellymom, so I would start there. Good luck!

Re: Seriously need some advice from an experienced source!

Is there any way your DH can bring her to you on your lunch break to nurse? Or maybe have him give her the bottle with skin to skin contact? I don't believe I am the experienced advice you need either sorry. My DD never really took a bottle either. Good luck!!

Re: Seriously need some advice from an experienced source!

Many bottles come with silicone nipples, which neither of my first 2 would take. If there is no history of latex allergy in your family, I would try a latex nipple. I know Playtex for sure has them; not sure about other brands.

Re: Seriously need some advice from an experienced source!

My DH isn't the best bottle feeder when I'm away. Not knowing the approach taken in your home, here are my suggestions. 1) do get all the info from kellymom.com on caretaker bottle feeding 2) make sure your DH knows how to watch for hunger cues. If baby is crying, especially crying hard, he is past the point of hunger. if the bottle isn't ready and addl time is needed to prep then thats more time for DS' anxiety to escalate 3) also look up paced bottle feeding on kellymom.com 4) if it hasn't been going well your DH might be stressed and tense. This is often our situation and the more tense my DH is, the worse the feeding goes. Everyone needs to be relaxed and view it as an opportunity to bond and give love. If DH dreads the bottle feeding its likely to remain a challenge. The tough part can be trying to impart all this without offending or emasculating. I personally have never given my DD a bottle so how could I be an expert? I have no answer there but hopefully your DH is receptive to info from an expert like Kelly mom

Last edited by @llli*debbers; November 5th, 2012 at 05:20 AM.
Reason: Corrected typos

Re: Seriously need some advice from an experienced source!

I read somewhere that using an article of mom's clothing on dad or whoever was watching/feeding the baby for the person to wear would help the baby take a bottle. Keep trying. My boss here at work tried the bottle before returning to work and then as soon as she came to work after maternity leave she refused the bottle for weeks. Eventually she took the bottle. Like the PP mentioned no baby will purposely starve themselves.